Tonight on the "Live in the Vocal Booth Show" we Rate & Review Regina Belle's New CD Higher. Also live in the BKS1RADIO Studio we have Best Selling Author J.M. Benjamin along with other Plainfield, NJ natives such as 2011 Sundace Film Fest Award Winner Director/Screen Play Writer Alrick Brown (Kinyarwanda), and Film Producer Lamar Mackson. Tune in for your chance to be a part of their new film "My Manz and 'EM The Movie

Artist Review: Regina Belle

Regina Belle is a virtuous woman and she has lived her life and career with an integrity that has always been apparent in her music. After the chart-topping success of the traditional, foot-stomping record “God is Good” from her gospel debut, Love Forever Shines, Belle is prepared to take her integrity to another level with her newest gospel opus HIGHER (Pendulum Records/Walker Davis Entertainment).

“What happened with ‘God Is Good’ on the first project was just surreal. I knew that I wasn’t going to have to start to the bottom because I do have a name and a very blessed career, but I had no idea that the church would be as receptive to my music as they were. I guess they felt safe because my (R&B) music has always maintained the decency factor and there was always integrity in everything I sang about in my songs.”

The intention of her debut into gospel music was important, since Belle was raised in church singing gospel from the age of 8. “ I was purposeful in making sure that the music fans and people who were seeking God, that might not have been churchgoers, were able to see that God was using the same person—Regina Belle.”

The four-time Grammy® Award and Academy® Award winner vocalist, whose hits have included such stellar offerings as “Make It Like It Was,” “If I Could,” “Dream In Color” and “A Whole New World (with Peabo Bryson) is prepared to offer the world a closer look into her heart and her walk with God with HIGHER.

Recognized as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces to Watch and an Emerging Film Maker by Vanity Fair, Alrick Brown is an award winning writer, director, and producer.

His collective works have screened in over 65 festivals worldwide, earning numerous awards and honors. Among them is the HBO Life Through Your Lens Emerging Filmmaker Award. For the critically acclaimed documentary Death of Two Sons, which he produced. In 2004 he was one of four NYU students featured in the IFC Documentary series Film School; produced by Academy award nominee Nannette Burstein.

His first feature, Kinyarwanda, made its world premiere as recipient of the prestigious World Cinema Audience Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Since then, Kinyarwanda has screened internationally in over 20 festivals, adding more than a half dozen honors to the writer/director’s credits. In November 2011 Kinyarwanda will begin distribution in U.S. theatres through the independent film collaborative African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM).

Alrick began his career as an educator, but found his true calling after visiting the slave castle of Elmina, in Ghana, during a two year tour with the Peace Corps in Cote d'Ivorie. The interactions with the people of his village, and his overall experiences in West Africa, informed his creative expression. An expression first fostered by his birth in Kingston, Jamaica and migration to, and upbringing in Plainfield, New Jersey.

Since then Alrick’s work has been described as cinematic archeology because of his vision to unearth stories that otherwise would not be told. His commitment to revealing the heart of and world around a story is what draws audiences, peers, and clients to his work. Other projects in play from Brown include directing the feature Somebody to Love, which was accepted into Tribeca All Access (2011). He is also co-writing and producing Treble; an IFP 2011 Emerging Narrative honoree. Beyond film, he recently made his small screen debut directing an episode of ABC’s Final Witness. The series airs in July 2012.

A fluent French speaker, Alrick graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in English and a Masters of Education, where he taught an undergraduate course on the African American image in cinema. He received his MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he later taught various courses to both undergraduate and graduate film students.

Special Guest: JM Benjamin

J.M. Benjamin is a successful, powerful and impacting author, entrepreneur and motivational speaker from Plainfield, New Jersey. Since being released from prison back in 2006 he has received numerous of accolades and recognition for his Essence Best Selling novel Ride Or Die Chick. J.M. Benjamin is also, the Award Winning author of Down In the Dirty, My Manz and ‘Em, On The Run With Love, Ride Or Die Chick 2, the recently award nominated novel Heaven & Earth and the co-author of the non-fiction motivational book From Incarceration 2 Incorporation, most in which can be found on book shelves in Barnes & Nobles, Borders, Books A Million and wherever else books are sold. He is also the contributor author to several anthologies (Christmas In The Hood, Menace II Society, The Massacre and Cocaine love Stories) with some of the top authors in urban lit such as Nikki Turner, K’Wan, Ashley & Jacquavis and Shannon Holmes.

In 2006, Senior Editor of Don Diva Magazine, Susan Hampstead acknowledges him as “Being one of the new underground writers making noise behind the prison walls.” J.M. quickly made his presence felt in the fast growing genre of Urban Literature after the completion of his incarceration with his freshman novel Down In The Dirty, published by a publishing house based out of New York. After appearing on The Wendy Williams Experience (2006) and The Michael Baisden Show (2007) J.M.’s career as an author soared to new heights after sharing how and why he started writing… JOLIE, a magazine ranked J.M.’s freshman novel “Down in The Dirty” as #2 hottest summer read of this past summer! Ironically, having spent more than half his life in the streets and a substantial amount of time in prison, J.M. Benjamin’s only credential as a street tale story teller is simply his own first hand experience and knowledge of what the street life consists of. Growing up in an urban community and practically being raised in the streets, J.M. Benjamin’s upbringing provided him with the necessary tools he now uses in his work to capture and display the reality and horrors of the streets worldwide.